Tony Magnifique...

At a time when various freaks condition their mediocre performance with bizarre demands, when puberty, who three times kicked out on the basket philosophically explain how they have to be prepared for the club season, Tony Parker is playing and playing! In the cool Zeta Zara, exactly 14 years ago, a boy in equipment that was at least three larger.

After the start of the starting five, the field took the place at the end of the Paris Racing bench, and the French journalist turned to us and said:

"Wait a couple of years. This guy will be a miracle."

A year later at the Junior European Championships in Zadar officially debuted the "Generation Parker", the best in the history of French basketball. Ronny Turiaf, Mickael Pietrus, Boris Diaw, Yakhouba Diawara and Parker who played in the shallow "adidas" sneakers of ale Jackson Richardson.

In the crowded Jazz, France won the European championship after the extension of Turiafa, and it was expected that Parker and his comrades would bring France at least one title from a major competition in the future. Years passed, but the Parker generation became known for incredible defeats more than anything else.

Semifinals EP 2003 against Lithuania. The French had 70:65 for three minutes to finish and lost the match. In the next attack, the ball was lost to Tony Parker.

Two years later in Belgrade, France also had six differences against Greece in the semifinals in the last minute to lose the triple Diamatidis.

In Spain in 2007, in the quarter-finals, free throws were fired 9/20 and suffered defeat against Russia 75:71.

In Poland in 2009 they did not have a chance against Spain in the quarter-finals. There were 20 differences.

The scandalous cycle was finally broken in Lithuania two years ago when they reached the final. It was Spain again ....

What was the constant of all these years? Parker always came back. Neither NBA fame nor three championship titles with Spurs, nor the MVP finals 2007 awards, nor the girls who flocked him at every turn. Nothing could have made Parker say:

"It's enough. This summer I pause."

Through numerous disappointments and painful defeats, through injuries, through the brutally difficult NBA season, Tony Parker responded each year to the preparations of the national team. No defeat stalled him. They say that after the fall, real people always step on their feet and go on even harder, and Tony did it every summer.

At a time when various freaks condition their mediocre appearance to bizarre demands, when puberty people who have three times peeped into the basket philosophically explain how they have to be prepared for the club season and how representative duties bear the risk of injury, when this and that trainer who is selector, Tony Parker - HEJ, TONY PARKER - keep quiet and play.

France is a national team in which everyone agrees. There is really no higher tones. There are chocolate houses, windows are made of marmalade, no matter what happens on the ground. You're kicking 0/15 none of the teammates and you're not looking at it. Everything is in style:

"Come on, masters, it'll be better, you'll guess the next one."

Almost the coach does not need them, although the villains say, however, Vincent Collet's greatest reach is the loud singing of the anthem before the game begins, and then turns into a spectator.

Here, for example, the best note of the match last night happened when in the middle of the third quarter an assistant coach sitting near my commentary said:

"These two ignorant players (Orenga and Collet) can not get this game! An extension will be played here."

All this changes when the Spaniards are on the long side. The eyes of the French were blushing. The Spaniards are really good, but they are so ardent, they are so arrogant and they are so strong in their power to bother this and this French team that really does not mind anything.

The mutual intolerance was produced, and others by Rudy Fernandez, by striking Parker in the Eurobasket finals in Lithuania. For a long time, the French were waiting for the money back and then they received it in the best possible way, returning after 14 points behind the half-time ....

France's hand on the heart did not look like a team that could reach the finals, especially after a light defeat from Lithuania and Serbia in the second round, but then put their fate in the hands of Tony Parker and he brought them up from the promised land.

Parker scored 60 points in the quarter-finals and semifinals, first against Slovenia and then Spain, and in most of these matches I was against everyone in the attack. The rest of the team did not have any idea, but Parker made slalom through the opposing defenses, ran through the entire five, rotated the rolled into the heart of the racket and regularly ended up penetrating through the opposing centers.

His ability to slide next to the defensive players in his own rhythm and almost every time he finds an angle or throws his unbearable floater or puts the ball on the board, remains the things we will admire and when his career is over. The man is in NBA's career at almost 50 percent of the shot from the game! You do not see it from a playmaker unless it's called John Stockton.

After finishing his masterpiece,lo against Spain, Parker feels with teammates, then went and gave each Spanish player a hand. All painful defeats aside, Tony Parker is still there, still waiting for his chance to lead France to the roof of Europe.

"Magnifique, Tony, magnifique !!!" shouted the French fans around me ...

Magnifique, than what ...